Woven wire fabric



June; 4, 1935. ONEiLL 2,003,695

WOVEN WIRE FABRIC Filed Aug. 6, 1952 Patented June 4, 1935 UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE- 7 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in woven wire fabrics such as areused on Fourdrinier and cylinder paper making machines and one of itsobjects is to provide a fabric or cloth of longer wearing quality thanheretofore available without altering in any way the drainage or otherrequirements for paper making purposes.

Another object of the invention is to provide a Fourdrinier wire clothhaving greater durability and strength without impairing its bending andflexing qualities, and of a relatively rustless, noncorrosive andnon-electrolytic character.

Another object of this invention is to utilize in a woven wire fabricwires composed of metal relatively soft with respect to steel and oftensile strength upwards of that of the usual bronzes and approachingthat of steel.

Another object of this invention is to provide a woven wire fabric whichretains its relative flexibility and does not become over-brittle in useby reason of work-hardening or fatigue or crystallization or the like.

Another object of this invention is to provide a woven wire fabrichaving special wires which do not cut or shear the remaining wires ofthe fabric.

Other objects will be apparent from the specification.

I have discovered that a Fourdrinier wire fabric has a longer life andproduces greater tonnage of paper when certain of its warp wiresinterposed at intervals across the entire width of the warp are made ofa composition of copper, manganese and silicon, a mixture which may betermed a manganese-silicon-bronze.

Fourdrinier wires as generally made at the present time consist ofinterwoven wires of brass or phosphor bronze, of tensile strengthsubstantially less than that of steel, which, although relatively pliantor flexible and resistant to corrosion and electrolysis, last for only ashort period of time. Fabric composed of these coppery metals readilywears down and loses resiliency which accelerates its destruction.

My improved fabric retains the pliancy or flexibility of suchcompositions of brass or phosphor bronze fabric to withstand therepeated and rapid bending and unbending of the fabric on the papermachine and is of equal or greater resistance to corrosion andelectrolysis and in addition increases both resistance to wear andtensile strength thereby increasing the'life of the fabric. This isaccomplished by increasing the durability and strength of the warp orlongitudinal wires upon which the major burden of wear and strain falls,by substituting for some of the usual brass or phosphor bronze warpwires, strengthening warp wires, of coppery metal essentiallynonwork-hardening and of higher tensile strength.

Such strengthening warp wires being of greater tensile strength than theremaining usual brass or phosphor bronze warp wires, lessen thelongitudinal strain by reducing stretching of the fabric thereby keepingit resilient and elastic and increasing its wearing life; and beingstill of soft metal, do not cut the remaining wires in contacttherewith; and being non-work-hardenlng, do not become brittle andfracture themselves prematurely.

In a plain woven fabric, I have found that such strengthening wiresconsisting of approximately 96% copper, 1% manganese and 3% siliconpreferably soft-annealed and used as every sixth warp wire and theremaining warp wires of the usual brass or phosphor bronze and the shutewires of brass, gives successful results by way or increased life of thefabric and increased tonnage of paper. These strengthening wires may beof the same size and spacing as the remaining warp wires so as not toproject above the surface and may conform in all other respects tostandard practise for the construction and operation of Fourdrinier wirefabrics as to drainage, mesh and other characteristics.

The accompanying drawing is a view greatly enlarged and not to scale ofpart of a Fourdrinier wire embodying my invention.

The fabric when made according to my invention may comprise the usualbrass shute or transverse wires a, groups I, 2 and 3 of a desired numberof the usual brass or phosphor bronze longitudinal or warp wires b, andwarp wires 0, of tough coppery alloy such as approximately 96% copper,1% manganese and 3% silicon drawn and annealed and interposed at regularintervals across the entire width of the warp. In the drawing, the weaveshown is plain or standard, and all wires a, b, and c are shown of the'same size and equally spaced apart but my improvement is intended tocover variations in size and spacing of the wires and any type of weavesuch as twilled weave, or reinforced weave as shown in my U. S. PatentNumber 1,593,668 patented July 27, 1926, or other type.

In the drawing, I have shown the groups I, 2 and 3 of warp wires 12 ascontaining four wires each, which has been found suitable for the averbmay be used in each group I, 2 and 3 and the special strengthening wiresc of copper alloy may be interposed between them. Sometimes it isdesirable to strengthen the edges of the wire fabric and thestrengthening wires 0 may then adjoin each other or be in some otherclose arrangement to make the edges stronger.

While I have shown the special wires 0 of a preferred composition, othermanganese-silicon bronzes may be used. The mixture may in some casesrange from about 82 to 96.5% copper, from about 3 to 15% silicon andfrom about 0.5 to 3.0% manganese. The tensile strength of the mixturemay' be upwards of 50000 pounds per square inch and may approach orequal that of steel. This manganese-silicon bronze may be prepared in amanner known to those skilled in the art of mixing, drawing, andannealing bronzes.

Other bronzes may be employed such as mixtures of copper with smallquantities of manganese or silicon or other bronzes or metals relativelysoft with respect to steel and that have a tensile strength approachingthat of steel or upwards of about 50000 pounds per square inch inultimate tensile strength.

And while I have shown my special wires as composing part only of thewarp, they may be employed in whole or in part of the warp or shute.

I am aware of Fourdrinier wire fabrics made by substituting some of theusual brass or phosphor bronze warp wires with warp wires of hard,non-coppery metal wires, but my invention is an improvement thereover.The bending and unbending of the fabric as it passes around the rolls ofthe paper machine rapidly work-hardens and makes more brittle such hardmetal wires causing them to break prematurely and also break or tearsections of the fabric thereby making it unfit for further use. Thegreatdiiference between the physical properties of such hard metal wiresand the remaining brass or phosphor bronze wires subjects the latter ina Fourdrinier fabric to forces that cause shearing or tearing of thebrass shute wires. Such hard metals being noncoppery metals are moresubject to electrolytic action when associated with brass or phosphorbronze in certain alkaline, salt or acid solutions which maybe presentin the manufacture of D 9 My invention, however, overcomes thesedifficulties. The relatively soft metal coppery alloy wires do notharden'perceptibly in use and premature cracking of such wiresthemselves or of thefabric is thereby avoided. My special wires work inharmony with the remaining wires in the fabric, neither reactingunfavorably upon the other to cut, shear, tear, weaken or otherwise beadversely affected mechanically, chemically, electrolytically oriotherwise. My special strengthening wires ofrelatively soft metalretain their high tensile strength, flexibility, and resiliency whenused with the remaining wires with which they cooperate to resistfrictional wear and give longer life to'the fabric than heretoforeavailable.

Also I am aware of fabrics of the prior art which I have used and whichconsisted of warp wires, some of brass and others of phosphor bronze,but my invention is an improvement thereover since among other reasons,these wires lacked the tensile strength of my present invention and didnot have the long life wearing qualities of my improved fabric.

I have illustrated my invention as embodied in a wire fabric for use ina Fourdrinier paper making machine but as the invention is also usefulin cylinder paper making and pulp treating machines, woven wire belts asconveyor belts, and for straining and bolting purposes or wherever it isdesired to strengthen a member subjected to force, I intend nolimitations other than those imposed in the appended claims and suchmodiiications as may occur to a person skilled in the art are intendedto be included within the scope of the claims.

What I claim is:

i. Paper-making and paper pulp treating woven wire fabric having warpwires of an alloy including copper, manganese and silicon.

2. Paper-making woven wire fabric as Fourdrinier or cylinder wire fabrichaving warp wires of an alloy including copper, manganese and silicon,at least some of said wires being disposed in the central part of saidfabric.

3. Fourdrinier paper-making woven wire fabric having warp "wires of .analloy including copper, manganese and silicon, some of said warp wiresbeing disposed in the central portion of said fabric and others of saidwarp wires being disposed adjacent the two edges of said fabric.

4. Fourdrinier paper-making wire fabric having warp wires of an alloyincluding copper, manganese and silicon, said warp wires being disposedat the two edges of the fabric whereby said edges are strengthened.

5. Fourdrinier woven wire fabric comprising interwoven warp and shutewires, said shute wires and some of said warp wires being of metalincluding copper and others of said warp wires consisting of an alloyincluding copper, manganese and silicon interspersed among saidfirst-mentioned warp wires at substantially regular intervals such asevery fifth or sixth warp wire across substantially the entire width ofthe fabric warp.

6. Fourdrinier woven wire fabric comprising interwoven warp and shutewires, said shute wires and some of said warp wires being of copperymetal such as the usual brass or phosphor bronze and others of said warpwires consisting of an alloy including copper, manganese and siliconinterspersed among said coppery metal warp wires at intervals acrosssubstantially the entire width of the fabric.

7. Fourdrinier paper-making wire fabric comprising interwoven warp wiresand shute wires, all of the warp wires of said fabric being of an alloyincluding copper, manganese and silicon.

JOSEPH O'NEILL.

